Prince of Wales, Falmouth

This is a simple, single room free house on Falmouth High Street, situated opposite the path down to the Prince of Wales Pier. You enter into a rectangular room with light wood floorboards and a compact servery in the rear right corner. The room has been fitted out with plenty of banquette seating, especially under the front windows, upholstered with some truly unattractive material. Standard tables and chairs fill out the rest of the room and there is a pool table in the rear left corner. The room has a reasonably traditional feel to it, thanks in part to the dark beams that run across the ceiling, although these were partially obscured by various flags, with Cornish flag bunting also strung around parts of the room. The bar is quite a straightforward affair, with an angular counter and a nice bar back with a pleasant design. A TV to the rear was switched off throughout my stay in favour of some surprisingly loud music which seemed a bit unnecessary given the dearth of customers on our early evening visit. The pub’s overall look, like so many others at this time of the year, was somewhat diminished by the countless novelty Halloween themed items that had been dotted around. This didn’t strike me as a particularly child-friendly pub (although I may well be wrong), so I have to wonder why anyone bothers will all this faux-spooky nonsense. Back to more appropriate matters, the pub tends to have four ales on, with St Austell Tribute and Proper Job and Draught Bass acting as the house beers, usually supplemented by another Cornish brew, which on this instance was Skinners Lushingtons. I opted for the latter, having seen it in pretty much every pub I visited in Falmouth, and thought it was a pretty good pint, certainly served up in good condition. The barmaid was friendly enough and seemed to have a good rapport with the small band of locals congregated at the bar. In many ways this is a fairly run-of-the-mill pub, with a bit of character balanced out by the tired décor and annoying seasonal affectations. There are pubs in town with comfier settings, better beer ranges and livelier atmospheres, but that is not to say that there is anything inherently wrong with this place – it just doesn’t particularly stand out from the crowd.

A terraced St Austell pub that does accommodation. The upper storeys are executed in a Georgian style, in cream and white, with large sash windows. The entrance level is in black wood and glass. The service was really friendly and the pub had recently won a Punch Quality Service Award to reflect this. The clientele consisted of us, and a few mature locals. They do food, but we didn't eat. The interior is a single L-shaped room, with wood floor, white and wood walls, with a stone fireplace. There is a pool table and dart board, with old photos and modern paintings juxtaposed on the walls. A few ship's flags were on the ceiling. The Tv was tuned to a radio station, with played general music at a decent level. Beer; well, Bass, Tribute, Proper Job and Skinner's Betty Stoggs were on - the Jobbie being decent. All in all, a nice stop off and a place i would happily do again - especially as Bass was on - something different for the local area, I am sure.